La economía política de los hospitales locales en la Cataluña moderna

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight how hospitals, in Catalonia since the late Middle Ages to the currently, adopted a governance model which resulted in the creation and preservation of hospitals or care institutions in virtually all municipalities, even in small, whose frame legal was the private or civil law. Firstly, we observed how individuals were motivated not only by philanthropy or charity, but also by a need to contribute something to the community after their death, to give back part of the assets the testators had accumulated during their lifetimes, as citizens who had benefited from their positions. Secondly, we observed that the small local private institutions merged with municipal hospitals, but that their assets were managed separately from those of the town. Third, as well as its care function, the hospital was also an economic agent that operated along similar lines to the Italian “Monte dei Paschi”. It provided loans to working class citizens at a modest rate of interest. The meaning of the institution was found to be more complex than the simple provision of care services. It acquired a specific value in the identity of the community, it became one of the centers of debate in public life and it took on an economic and financial meaning that strengthened the construction of the citizens’ collective identity.